Rhinebeck

Or as someone accidentally called it, Yarnbeck, how funny is that?

The weekend was great, it was wonderful to see Cyn she was a wonderful hostess, yummy food and all. The weekend was action packed, including a stop at WEBS where some purchases were made. It was a wonderful time of year to go, I was hoping the leaves hadn't completely changed but feared they may have. No, it was beautiful, I should go to Rhinebeck every year to just see the leaves. Of course I took about no pictures of the leaves and about ummm 2 pictures at Rhinebeck. This being one of them. Rhinebeck was overwhelming, so much yarn and I am not even postive we saw it all. It was hard to resist any of it knowing some other knitter may come along and snatch it up. So I didn't resist much. I tried to be good, but hell I was at Rhinebeck I may never go back, you know? So here is the whole lot between the 3 of us. We did pretty good ehh? It is easy to tell what is Stacey's but Cyn and I bought sort of meshes together, except my new love of the orange, red yellow combo.

Here is my Rhinebeck loot, I don't have a pictures of the WEBS stuff just yet, will work on that. I will work on a detailed breakdown soon.

I also finished both sleeves of Starsky while I was away, I am loving this sweater, only the yarn is turning my fingers orange, like I ate a crap load of cheetos or something. Pictures of that to come soon as well.

I actually have made some progress all around lately. I worked on some projects that just need some finishing. I have finished a new project, and I have started a new project. This past Sunday I worked on the Noro Cowl, all it needs is the cowl, it is seemed, ends are weaved in I just need to pick up the stitches and go. The stitches have been picked up, I have about a third of the cowl done. I am liking how it is looking, hopefully this will be complete fairly soon.

The new project is the Starsky from knitty, I love this pattern and I am loving the Malabrigio I am using for it a dark burnt orange. And I am knitting on 7's can you believe that, I can't recall the last time I knit on 7's being the loose knitter I am. This is exciting stuff. I have also realized I have more consistent stitches with bamboo needles, why have I not figured this out before? I love this color so much.

I have also finished my secret pal scarf it is ready to go, I am going to be dorky and mail it from Rhinebeck what a knitterly place to mail it huh?

So Thursday late night Stacey and I get on a red eye to Rhinebeck, hopefully Cyn doesn't mind too much picking us up at like 5 am, before the T in Boston is running. I am so excited to knit, shop, visit, shop, knit.

Everyday Tweed is done!!! I blocked it and finished up all the finishing last night. I am loving this sweater, and am excited that I have used some of my Estes yarn finally!!! I do have a good 300 yards left, hmmm maybe a scarf or something.

Pattern: Everyday Tweed

Needles: 4's (knit picks new interchangeables) and 3's (addi's) on the ribbing

Modifications: I didn't really do the body and sleeves as the pattern called for I took the sleeves off and kept going with the body, apparently you are supposed to pick some stitches up under the arms, oops.

Yarn: Plain and Fancy, bought 6/2006 at Estes Green/Purple/Grey variegated

The edging has a real simple picot edge, that you actually do one row of YO, KTOG then knit about 6 more rows and create a hem, it was much easier to whip stitch and didn't take near as long as I though it would. Here is a close up of the edging.

I have no pictures, it is disappointing I know. but you see, my hard drive crashed last Wednesday night, the night before I left for my Grandfather's funeral. Luckily it was a work computer and all is better now. But you see I can't find the software for my camera, I recall loading the software right before going to NY and having to move everything out of main floor of the house so the floors could get re-done. It could be anywhere, literally. So if anyone has a powershot, or a canon, might I borrow your software?

And if I had taken photos there is nothing new, just more progress on what you all have already seen. Everyday Tweed is near done, maybe a couple inches on one sleeve, make sure the other sleeve is long enough, then pick up stitches for the neck do the hems and finished!! I didn't even run out of yarn, and I am sort of baffled that it will only use up 3 skeins of the Plain and Fancy, maybe a tiny bit of the 4th skein. What to do with 300 plus yards of the leftover skein, hmmmm.

The scarf for my secret pal is done being knitted, I just need to kitchener the 2 sides together and be done. I was really hoping to get it in the mail this week, but no. I haven't really been working on much of anything else, the clapotis has seen a little bit here and there in the car driving 7 hours to Kansas. But while I was gone it was mostly all about the Everyday Tweed.

I do want to enforce my finishing Sundays again this week, send good vibes this way. Cutaway I am having trouble getting into because I am a little worried it won't look so hot when I am done. Maybe more blocking will help, isn't that the cure all? This weekend I think I will focus on finishing the Noro Cowl, it only needs the cowl picked up and put on, the seaming is done for goodness sake. So look for the Noro Cowl FO next week, and wish me luck finding the camera software.

I get obsessed, I knit and knit and knit on one project it is crazy. This is how things get done, this is why when I have 3 or 4 projects on the needles I can go crazy!! I started The Everyday Tweed last week and I can't stop. I love the colors, a purple/green/gray this is for the Grey's Anatomy KAL. I suspect I will need another project before the season is over. This also means Sizzle, hasn't been sizzling at all. But these colors this pattern it is so pretty!!! And a close up of the pretty colors, ball one is knit all up. I hope I have enough of the Plain and Fancy to finish!

My niece has also taken an interest in my knitting, way back when I had some extra yarn and needles with me so she tried to knit, she sort of got, but not really. But she was interested that is the important part. So for her Birthday I got her a knitting machine, now don't think ohhh all fancy. You crank this one, it comes with 400 yards of eyelash yarn. I have yet to see it perform but I hear it is working great!! It sort of scares me.

I finally posted on the ISEIII blog, they made me do it. I don't want to get kicked out and all get blacklisted. I finished up the first half of the scarf and started up the second half. I am excited to finish it up so I can start one for me.

I wanted to also comment that even though I started Sunday Finishing, I skipped a week and then worked a tiny bit this past Sunday on seaming up Cutaway. Soon we will know if it is wearable or not! LimeBlue is wearable though, that is exciting!! Here is hoping that this Sunday with no plans can be Finishing Sunday, Mystery Stole and Cutaway are screaming at me!! Then there is the Noro cowl, and green gables to finish. All these projects are they having babies when I am not looking?

I have finished something, I recently realized as I was cleaning up pictures here at the blog that I haven't finished anything in a while. Wait, wait I finished 2 somethings. One of them I have no finished picture, oops. It is the Purple Gable for mom, she actually wore it yesterday. You know how you analyze your knitting all day the first time you wear something you have knit (I am not the only one right)? I think it might be worse when someone else wears a knitted item of yours, I kept thinking hmm maybe we need more increases for the hips, and is it too tight around the middle. Sorry mom. But she loves it or at least pretends too.

I have also finished the Lime Blue Cardi, I love this sweater but I need some advice here. I don't want to rip things back but do the sleeves look too funny, one has pooled a ton and well the other did not. I like the pooling and am quite sure I can't find a way in hell to replicate it, I might have a better chance to rip the pooling sleeve to look more like the unpooled sleeve. You tell me your opinions. Well see if I am lazy and rip, live with it or what. And now the picture of the two sleeves up close and personal.

So girls does it look super funny? Is the curse of never knitting the garment once still with me. Oh wait I did have to re-knit the top part of this way back when.

Along with some finished projects I also have some new stuff going on, some old stuff found at the bottom of the pile and such.

I started Sizzle while coming home from NY, but didn't get far. Put it aside until other things had finished. Now I am cruising along. The colors are not quite as bright as in the picture. I love the Bamboo yarn, Southwest Trading Company Bamboo to be specific.

I have also pulled an old Clapotis out, since the previous one is forever the "damn" Clapotis this one is more appealing, I like the colors and may even use it one day.

The last knitting item to get attention is International Scarf Exchange knitting. I have chosen Malabrigo yarn in an Apple Cinnamon color, I think that is right. Light pink and light brown, I hope my pal loves it!! I borrowed the free pattern from the FiberBrunette, super easy and love how it looks. I see one for me coming soon!

I am also contemplating starting The Everyday Tweed with some plain and fancy as well. The Purple/Green stuff I bought in Estes, I must use some Estes yarn soon, how horrible would it be to get to Estes time next year and now have used my yarn!!

I have so many projects that are so close to being done, and they are not ones that I have given up on, just ones that have been pushed aside. This bugs me to no end, I am practical, I love to knit but I also love to use my knittables. Wear them, or at least fold them up and put them in the closet like I would wear them one day. I hate the piles project pieces. So I declared Sunday my finishing day, and the first Sunday finishing went rather well.

I completed clue 6 of Mystery Stole on one end of my stole, leaving clue 6 to do on the other end. If I don't run out of yarn. It will be close, this sucker is long..... See the new finished floors too, they look wonderful!

I have also finished up the knitting on the Cutaway, all that is left is seaming. This shouldn't be to bad. I just hope the bind off on this one doesn't make the round parts in front bunch too much.

Also finished is the Purple Gables for Mom, she just needs to try it on ok the sleeve length and then I will sew in the sleeve ends. See this makes me feel better I have made progress on some items that have been neglected. Until next Sunday.

Tennis was great, vacation was mostly great, traveling with my mom and sister, ehhh. We are going to need a 5 year break before I am ready to do this again and forget all the annoying things about family.

So this is most likely just going to be a quick sneak peek into the vacation with some more details later, but well if I never get to the details the overall info is here. Thursday night we saw one of the most amazing match I have ever seen, Agassi vs Bagdahtis, the last winning match of Agassi's career. Friday even James Blake made a tribute to Agassi by wearing this throw back Agassi outfit (I think I had a poster of Agassi in this outfit in my room, in err Middle School I hope.) We saw many other big names and great matches including Martina Navrativola which I had never seen play before. I could have stayed and just watched tennis I love it. If only I could pay attention to knitting while watching. OK this might be a tennis only post with others to come (where else can I post all the pictures)...

I saw the up and coming new Russianish Nicole Vaidisova as well as the old favorites. Lindsay Davenport she hasn't retired yet but I think it may be coming soon. There was also Roddick, Mauresmo, Serina, Hewitt, Janvokic.

So much tennis I loved it. I couldn't come home with out an addition to my collection as well, who knew I collect rubber ducks. Isn't he cute!!! OK now onto, maybe some knitting and other purchases made.

There was some non-tennis happenings as well, and a lot of touristy things too. I didn't partake in the super touristy day of Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the double decker bus ride in the rain, I needed the break from the family. So I met up with the no longer in Denver, super missed Cyn it was great to see her!!! I met up with her, and some of her friends for a great breakfast, she did all proper over on her blog with links and all, go check it out.

Then on to shopping, now I am sure it is no surprise to the local group that well we didn't take any pictures. It is the great plan that we may be the least photographed knitters... We started out at School Products which was a unique yarn store they had a ton of cashmere blends and what not. I bought one little skein of 100% Cashmere, it is so so soft. Cynthia didn't show a picture of what she bought I suspect maybe because there was some Koigu with some pinkish (no, wait it had to be purple) in it. Really pretty no less.

It was rainy and not the best of days, but we trudged through it, I was just happy to not have conversations like:

Mom: "How far is the Empire State building from our hotel?"

Me: "I don't know."

Mom: "How long will it take us to get there?"

Me: (trying to be nice) "Mom if I don't know how far it is how will I know how long it will take?"

As so on and so on. I call them filler questions, like when I do something obvious and someone asks about it. I buy a shirt at the US Open, my mom is like "oh do you like that shirt?" No mother I bought it because it is fricking ugly!!! She likes to fill the space has to talk regardless, quiet is not good for Mom, so she asks stupid annoying questions that drive me crazy and bring out the worst in me. Ok so onto the shopping.

I had wanted to get a bag, not any bag a bag you can only get in NY not one I would be able to find at home, or see someone else with at home. We hit a two stores, I found the bag in the second store. Verve it was a small shop with a ton of bag's all so beautiful and not all so affordable. I came home with this little (well actually the biggest purse I own). I really love it and feel less and less guilty about the price the more I look at it. I don't even have enough crap to fill it up, yet.

There was also some Vacation knitting, I bound off the body of the Green Gable for my mother on Tuesday night, I have the sleeves to go and it will be done!! I didn't think I had knit much while I was out there but apparently I had. I am pleased with how this is looking, I hope it sill fits Mom ok when I give it to her. Can I knit every pattern top down in the round, I love it!!

And since I was on vacation and calories don't count, which also means if you start something new just for the fun of it, even if you have 10 things to finish at home, there is no guilt there either (Not really true but I can try and fool myself). I cast on for Knit and Tonic's Sizzle I have not made it far yet, apparently the guilt set in about when I walked in the door and say the lime blue cardi, cutaway and my very own Green gable that needs to have some work done on them...

I was gone for 5ish days girls and I came home to so many blogs to catch up on, the most amazing one was Nachaele she updated 12 times while I was gone and was also packing, cleaning and moving. I am not sure I can squeek out that many posts in a month!

Ahhh we have pictures, thank goodness!!! I have made progress on my current two main projects, Purple Gables for Mom and the Lime Blue Cardi.

Lime Blue, I just finished up the body and have barely started on the sleeves, this yarn is still so so soft, and I love the color.

Purple Gables is going quickly, I had taken off the sleeves so Mom could try it on and it was a little tight I ripped back and am ready to take the sleeves off again now.

I was going to try and take only two projecrts to the US Open this week, but I think I have to take at least 3. Purple Gables is going so fast, and I would like to have it close to done since Mom will be there to continually try it on. I am also going to take Sizzle to start on,using a red/orange Bamboo. And the Hourglass, using the Purple/Green Plain and Fancy. If nothing else I have airplane knitting time.

I am so excited to get away, I need the escape right now and this will be the first trip traveling with my Mom and Sister, I hope it goes well so we can keep traveling together. I also get to see the super missed Cynthia!!

This blog has been neglected, the camera has been MIA so the blog has been as well. So you get a pictureless blog. And as all the local knitters know, I look at pictures more than I read the content of blogs. So I must keep this short..

I have been in a knitting funk of sorts, progress is getting made but nothing completed yet.

- Lime Blue Cardi is close to being bound off, then just sleeves to go!!

- Cut Away, poor cutaway it should be done, it only has finishing to do. But little to no love in a while.

- Mystery Stole 2, I was gung ho while new clues were coming out, I must be done before I can start the next clue, well now that all the clues are out I am fizzling a bit. I have almost finished clue 6 on one side, I am wrapping up the edging and then I can do the other side. It won't take long.

- Madli just might be dusty.

- I have started a 2nd Green Gable for my mother's bday. Not real far on that yet.

- My fall/winter knit list is growing and growing, Starsky, hourglass, Tubey, another coat like sweater out of Big Girl knits, plus another cardigan out of Big Girl Knits. Oh Sizzle, a Noroeske cardi too, out of Malabrigio though. And much more.

I can't be in a funk I have a ton of knitting to get done before spring!!

I think I may be a big C knitter. We all know what a big K knitter is about, but the big C whether I just made it up or not may fit the bill here. I will get to what the C stands for soon.

I start to then realize a great friend to all of us Denver Knitters is moving soon, which is a sad event with a few nice perks. She will be near Knitter fantasy lands like Webs and Classic Elite which has a discount store there as well, how could all of us pass up a chance to go visit. I mean really!!! This doesn't even mention all the yarn stores in the greater Boston area. Cynthia her very own self, just sent out this email listing her new shopping list:

1) (more for me than you) IKEA is 35 minutes away from my apt.

2) WEBS is 1.5 hours away

3) the Classic Elite Warehouse is 45 minutes away.

4) Rhinebeck: THREE hours!!!

5) Maryland Sheep and Wool: 6 hrs.

So I start thinking, hey I want to visit Cynthia in the near future, I should make the best of it. Now I wish I could check off all of her items on the list above but I will take what I can get. The other night for giggles I start looking at plane ticket prices. Then I look here at the Vendor list for the New York Sheep and Wool festival, seriously look at all of those vendors, it is madness. I look back at the plane ticket prices to Boston, they are pretty cheap. How do I pass this up. I type a few quick IM's to Cynthia and before you know it I bought a ticket. I am going to Rhinebeck this year, I am also going to see Cynthia!!!

I am beyond excited, I am already being a little nerdy and looking up vendor websites and such. I may need a second job between now and then to afford any yarn though!!

So as you can imagine a big C knitter stands for CRAZY!!!

My feed didn't seem to update the last time I posted. We shall see if wakes up this time or not.

The knitting guilt continues, poor poor Cutaway it has seen no love and it is so close to being done. I started another new small project this week, one with a deadline of August 5th. It is the one Stacey is making for her niece. I sure hope mine turns out as cute. Here is the beginning of the back. It knits up fast, hopefully it knits fast enough to be done in time.

I have also finished up the first half of clue 3 for the Mystery Stole. I made a couple mistakes but I don't feel the need to rip it out or point them out for that matter. And this of course means Madli too has seen no time on the sticks. She will grow again one day. Especially if I take Cynthia up on her offer for us to race to the finish. This could get dicey, do you think she would notice if I dropped a stitch for her?

I also got to take my sleeves off the Lime Blue Cardi this week, I am loving this knit, I hope the Malabrigio doesn't pill as much as I am told it does, it can't it is too soft and pretty too. It is even starting to look like a Cardigan.

I have felt like most of my time has been either knitting or working, it makes for a boring to blog about life.

Mystery Stole 2 is so addictive. I can't stop knitting this thing!!! Hopefully tonight I will have both parts of Clue 2 finished so that I can go back to normally programmed knitting. I thought I would only do half then work on other projects but I can't. I will say it is going really fast, compared to Madli which now is the same thing over and over it is quite refreshing to have 50 rows of completely different knitting. Below is a crappy picture of the progress so far. I have some gaping holes on the right side of the top of my clovers I need to figure out some trick to get those all prettied up.

This picture is worse than I thought, sorry!

Dad's surgery went great, the doctor said it went perfectly, which we rarely ever hear when it comes to his health. He was in good spirits yesterday so that is encouraging. It may be a long 6 months of rehab though.

Only one new little bit of info the rest is all progress yada. I signed up for the Mystery Stole 2, I have my yarn picked out and I cast on, I may redo this though my provisional looks a bit sloppy. The yarn is actually darker green than the picture shows, darn camera it is smarter than me again.

I am up to 15 and a half repeats of Madli, that is exactly half way done for the body. I would really like to see this thing move along so I can get onto another lace project. I have bought some gray pearl color lace from handpainted to make my Grandmother a shawl for Christmas. Just need a pattern and the Madli done!

I am also getting through the Cutaway nicely, all that is left are the sleeves, and I am working on both now.

Over the long weekend I had plenty of time to work on both and was pretty happy with the progress. I am itching to finish both. I also want to start a new sweater out of my Estes purchases. I am currently thinking Hourglass with the Plain and Fancy we shall

see. The long weekend was wonderful I really needed the break and enjoyed every minute. So much that I am taking another 3 day weekend this weekend, and a 4 day weekend the week after. And in other good work news, my least favorite co-worker quit today!!

Hopefully a lot of knitting will go on this weekend, Dad will be having surgery (nothing life threatening, shoulder replacement, dude is my Dad old enough for this, does this mean I am old now too?) tomorrow which sucks but does mean I will be doing a lot of sitting around knitting. Grandma will be in town this weekend as well which is always great. I wish she lived closer. Have a great weekend!!

Like all the other local girls ssss(plus a few more) I was off to the Estes Park Wool Festival on Saturday. Michelle was so kind to host us all Friday night so we could get an early start from the same location Saturday morning. The good news is that I had money for lunch, and didn't use the plastic at all, I took cash hoping if I had to transfer to plastic I would realize I was in trouble. It worked. I will admit I had hoped to bring some cash home though. Below is the new stash enhancement:

Brooks Farm Yarn Limited Edition Superwash top left, 2 balls of Trekking top middle, Plain and Fancy Sheep and wool top right and bottom right. Some 100% Alpaca in Colorado Red bottom left and the big purchase was Brooks Farm Yarn 100% Kid Mohair on the bottom middle. Isn't it beautiful!

I also have some progress photos to share.

First up the Cutaway pattern, the back is almost finished.

Not sure if I mentioned before but this is Jo sharp Soho summer cotton dk yarn, in a slate color. It is really soft I am liking this knit and it is fast. I have a few more inches before the back is done.

I have also been working on the Madli's Shawl it is quite a bit slower knit but enjoyable.

Call me the copycat. Stacey decided to make the Noro Shrug, so I made it along with some others(Cynthia, Michelle..). Wanda went and made a Green Gable, so I went and made one too. Kim bought this awesome Vera Bradley Bag, in Java Blue, so I got one too (see behind the picture of the shawl). Cynthia started the Madli Shawl, I just bought a ton of lace weight and didn't really have plans, I have been looking for a not so girly frilly shawl, so guess what? With Cynthia's help I started the Madli Shawl last night, even knit on it over lunch today. I am loving this, it is addictive, Cyn was right about that.

Just so everyone doesn't think I am all copy cat, I did make the Noro Cowl (still needs to be seamed) and I know a few have yarn to make it now too.

I have also started on the Cutaway pattern, which no one else I knit with is working on currently. It is going really fast I have about 3 inches before I can start the arm hole shaping. Good think I have the shawl now for some excitement.

I have tried all week to post this entry, and by now all the original pictures are out of date, but good news I have new pictures, complete pictures, well complete as in pictures of it blocking as we speak.

Green Gable Pretty Blue Gable is now complete, I knit this with Rowan all Seasons Cotton, in a shade of blue color I don't know right now. This was a super quick knit and I even added sleeves. I was amazed that I switched out the yarn, didn't really swatch, and it still fits. Of course that is after one or two re-do's which is normal for me I always knit things at least 3 times over before they are complete. I am working on this, believe me. I have also started a lace project, a stole, there isn't much to see yet. I really really want to knit this stole. Isn't it pretty? Lace and Intrelac all in one, am I crazy? Here is what I have started on my beginning lace stole.

He was so good when we got him, no chewing nothing bad, he was mellow and just happy to be where we were. He is digging, and he even escaped twice yesterday to go sit on the front porch, well until the neighbors dog went by then he took off to their house. We are all learning slowly, but I will admit it has been a lot better than I anticipated and he doesn't seem to have any interest in yarn, which is the biggies relief. He is still quite cute though. Not all that photogenic yet, we'll work on it.